United States and Wisconsin flags are flying at half-staff today — National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day .
Sir Winston Churchill was Britain's Prime Minister during the Second World War, and had met with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt several times. Churchill's grandson, Nicholas Soames recently visited Wisconsin for the first time and spoke about the relationship of the two political leaders. Soames said Churchill loved FDR and saw him as the savior of the free world.
"Of course you know that on the day that the American fleet was attacked at Pearl Harbor , when the news was brought to my grandfather, although very appalled at what had happened to the American fleet, he said we have now won the war, because it was a guarantee that America would immediately enter the war, which it did duly at 3:00 that afternoon."
Soames, who is a Conservative Member of Parliament since 1983, said there won't be any more Churchills, who Soames called a "soldier of fortune." The political icon served six of the kings and queens of Great Britain. Most remarkable, according to Soames, was Churchill's astonishing foresight.
"In almost every seer of human endeavor, Churchill foresaw the dangers and potential for evil and foretold them with devastating character to a largely unlistening world. Many of these dangers are indeed our dangers today. Here he is speaking in the House of Commons in February of 1935. It could just as well be said today of Iraq."
Soames compared the relationship of President Bush and former Prime Minister Tony Blair to that of FDR and Churchill.
"The relationship with Prime Minister Blair, who is a Labour Prime Minister after all, and President Bush had been very close indeed. And I think it's important that the British Prime Minister and the President of the United States, whatever the circumstances, remain very close. And the role model for that relationship of course was FDR and Churchill."
Soames also talked about his personal relationship with his grandfather, whom he adored. But, Soames refuses to answer questions that cause him to speculate about what his grandfather might have thought about something.
"My grandfather is dead … died in 1965, and I think for me to say what he would have thought of anything is the height of impertinence."
Soames was in Madison for the 2007 Wimmer-Churchill lecture at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum . Today is the 66th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, triggering the U-S entry into World War II.
